Tag Archives: Alice in Wonderland

Nearly a week to get this post up! I blame work. But the reality is that I just haven’t figured out much of what I want to say about Alice in Wonderland. So rant mode, activate!

While it’s not a package film, it has a distinct feel of one; it’s a collection of short segments that are all largely unrelated.

The common threads that unite them is that they all 1) Are about Alice trying to find her way home and 2) They’re all based in a bizarre sensical nonsense which is how Alice said she’d want her world to be during the opening segment before tumbling down the rabbit hole.

Alice declared, “nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t.” The very idea of such a thing makes little sense in and of itself since our naming conventions are largely arbitrary (see my rant about this in the post on Bambi). If, in Alice’s world, down was suddenly defined as up, the directions don’t truly change, just the terminology. While this may mess up our liguistic comprehension temprorarily, it doesn’t have any bearing on our actual perception.

But perhaps she meant something slightly deeper. Instead of just calling things in a different manner, what if, in Wonderland, perception truly was different?

There are examples of how people actually adapt to such things. In one experiment, scientists wore special headsets made with mirrors that reversed their perception of left and right. At first, they stumbled about, but after several days of this reverse reality, their brains adapted and automatically compensated. Alice ultimately reacts in a very similar manner. While at first, she struggles to adapt to a world where eating causes her to shrink and even a sip causes her to fill houses, eventually she uses this set of changed rules to her advantage.

Initially, Alice struggles with this, needing help from the Doorknob to guide her through the process of this reasoning so she can shrink to fit through him. She floods the room with her tears and ends up in an ocean. She washes up on the shore and in an attempt to get dry, the various sea life is having a caucus race, which does nothing. What an apt observation for our current political climate where both parties do nothing more than go in circles trying to bite the other’s tail.

From there she heads into the woods and meets the twins, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. This segment is a perfect example of why this movie has the feeling of a package film; the twins tell a story about how a bunch of oysters were duped into being a feast by a conniving walrus. It has almost nothing to do with the main plot except that it, very loosely, is based on the fact that Alice was chasing the white rabbit because she was “curious”. The tale is supposed to be about how curiousity killed the cat oysters, but in reality, was more about temptation. The Walrus has a definative feel of Honest John from Pinnochio.

The twins try to regail her with more tales, but she runs off to chase the rabbit and finds his house in which she gets stuck when she drinks something. Bill the lizard tries to help, but to no avail until Alice eats a bit of carrot (Bonus trivia: Bill also appears in Who Framed Roger Rabbit). This shrinks her down to sing a song with some flowers. When they accuse her of being a weed, she runs off trying to find a way home.

She meets with the hookah smoking caterpillar who asks her who she is, but she doesn’t ever really answer. I guess drugs are bad, m’kay?

The Cheshire Cat advises her to ask the Doormouse and the hatter, so she joins the mad tea-party which is definitely one of the most memorable portions of the movie. I mean, come on, who doesn’t want an unbirthday? (PS: Today is my unbirthday!)

Eventually, she finds the Queen’s castle and discovers the guards, er…. cards painting the roses red. Why? Because the queen wants them red. In this way, we see another one of the charming characteristics of Wonderland: The paradox between the simple and the complex. The cards take a very simple solution to a problem (Queen wants the roses red. How do we make things red? With paint! Thus, we should paint the roses! QED). Yet there was a much simpler solution that was overlooked: Plant red roses in the first place.

Of course, this ties back to another recurring theme: The small vs the large. The solution of painting the roses only addresses the problems in that small time period where the roses already existed as white. In the larger picture, the other solution would have been the better one. This too has interesting parallels in science. Many people often complain about how science is flawed and cite conclusions such as a flat earth, or the Geocentric model of the solar system. But what people often fail to realize is that, when looking in very small terms, these solutions are exceptionally accurate! Consider your yard; unless you live on a hill, your yard is probably pretty flat. The change in height is very little compared to the total width of the yard. On the small scale, it’s a very good fit.

It was only as our breadth of knowledge grew that it became untennable. The same is true for the Geocentric model. Even after the Heliocentric one was proposed, the Geoctentric model dominated for a very long time, not just because of political pressures, but because the Geocentric model simply provided equally, if not more accurate predictions. As we grow, we get a different perspective, and more comes into view. Often times, the simpler solutions still work for the smaller ones (for example: We still teach Newtonian gravity even though we know it’s insufficient and has been replaced by relativity, but at low velocities and without exceptionally large masses, the Newtonian solutions can provide sufficiently correct answers).

The Queen is an eccentric individual as well. When Alice is on trial, the Queen insists that the sentencing come first (probably because that’s when she can say her most famous line). I have to wonder if the Queen’s character is a commentary on women in politics. I doubt it is given that women were still so far away from having any political power when the source material was written, but historically (and even in contemporary times), mysoginists have argued that women should be prevented from holding any sort of power because they were “prone to hysterics”.

Regardless, the trial is the first time Alice truly tries to insist for some sort of normalcy, and that the order of the trial follow the normal procedure. Of course, the Chesire Cat throws a wrench in both of their plans by disrupting the whole trial and eventually Alice wakes up to find herself back in Kansas the meadow. No grand conclusion. No revelation to tie it all together. No happily ever after. Just time for tea or some such nonsense. It was an unsatisfying ending to a movie that made little sense.

But this too presents a paradox: Alice in Wonderland is a poorly ended movie without much coherence in either the plot or individual plot points, yet it has found a way to become an endearing classic.

With the commercial success of Cinderella, the studio was saved and Walt finally had the opportunity to reintroduce a film that has been revisited, revised, and in pre-production five different times over the course of thirteen years. However, this story doesn’t begin with Walt or his production team. Nor does this story begin with hallucinogens or drugs. This goes back three-quarters of a century to England and a Mr. Charles Dodgson.

The stories of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (yes, there were originally two stories) were written in the mid-late nineteenth century by Lewis Carroll (the pen-name of Charles Dodgson.) Mr. Dodgson was a clergyman, mathematician, and photographer. Living on the campus of Christ Church, he became very close with the Liddell family, which consisted of Henry (the dean of Christ Church), his wife, and their four children. Because of Dodgson’s fascination with photography, he always had an excuse to be near the children, frequently using them as subjects. He told them fantastical stories as they went for picnics and walks.

One such day, Charles, his friend, and the three youngest of the Liddell children went for a picnic on a boat down a river. The children, as they often did, begged Mr. Dodgson for a story. This was the beginning of what would become Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. The youngest of the Liddell children was Alice, of which the main character was based. The other children were put in as other characters, while the more famous ones, such as The Queen of Hearts, would be based on more prominent people of the time. Alice begged and begged for Mr. Dodgson to write his stories down and he eventually obliged, giving a copy with his own illustrations to the Liddell family. The family was so entranced by his storybook that they insisted he have it published. Once realizing it was to be published, he hired Sir John Tenniel to do the illustrations.

I will pause in my history lesson to acknowledge an argument (not one of my own.) Were the Alice stories an innocent gesture for a little girl? Was Mr. Dodgson in love with Alice or her older sister? There was a point in which Charles and the Liddell family were estranged. Why? Are the accusations of pedophilia true? I do not know. Many Carroll scholars argue the contrary. He did, in fact, take nude photographs of children, but this was apparently a sign of the times. I will allow you to form your own opinion on the matter. Continuing on…

Once published, Lewis Carroll’s stories became tremendously popular all over the world. He changed children’s literature forever. Previous to his stories being published, all children’s stories and books were meant as morality tales. They were to teach children how to behave, how to think, and to keep quiet. Carroll insisted that his works would have no morals. They were simply for entertainment purposes. (Yes, you have Lewis Carroll to thank for changing literature and influencing all the other authors we know and love today.)

So what does any of this have to do with Walt Disney? I’m glad you asked.

As a schoolboy, Walt read Mr. Carroll’s stories. He became entranced, as so many children do, with the fantastical, nonsensical world of Wonderland. The stories perfectly reflected what it is like to be a child trying to live in a grown up world. No one listens to you, you’re constantly berated, and everything seems like nonsense.

In the 1920s, before Snow White, Mickey Mouse, or even Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, there was Alice. Walt Disney’s first commercial success came in the form of “the Alice Comedies” or “Alice in Cartoon Land.” These shorts featured live action as well as animated characters. The shorts were created in Disney’s first studio in Kansas City, MO. (There is currently a project to restore Laugh-O-Gram Studios – more information: here) While the Alice comedies had very little to do with Carroll’s novels, it was Walt’s first dabble with the idea.

Several (if not all) of the Alice comedies can be found on youtube (as they are now in public domain):Alice’s Wonderland

Shortly after Alice’s fame, Disney moved out to Hollywood where Oswald and Mickey would soon be born. Walt didn’t leave Wonderland behind in Kansas, however. The inspiration of Carroll’s Wonderland would follow him for many years to come.

In 1931, Walt Disney bought the rights to the illustrations done by Sir John Tenniel. These would later serve as inspiration for the film that we know and love today.

Alice could have very well been the “first” animated feature instead of Snow White. However, in 1933, the Alice project was put on hold due to another production company releasing a live action version of Alice in Wonderland.

Walt did not let his ideas of Wonderland escape. In 1936, the Walt Disney Studios created a Mickey Mouse short called, “Thru the Mirror,” and in 1938, Walt set his men to start developing Alice in Wonderland as a full feature. In the 1939 film, Pinocchio, you can see two books in the background – Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. These were the next two films being developed. Unfortunately, they kept getting delayed and would not make their debut for over a decade.

Finally, after the commercial success of Cinderella, Walt could once again revisit Wonderland.

While Walt wanted to stay true to the original material, several things were changed in the film (as so often happens.) Both books, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass were used as inspiration. Several characters were cut from the stories, such as the Mock Turtle, Duchess, the White Knight, and the Jabberwocky (to name a few.) Although the ideas were toyed with by the company, they were cut, mostly due to time constraints.

The scene in the Tulgey Wood was created by the studios to make Alice a more sympathetic character. This does not appear in the book(s). The Door Knob character was also created by the production team. The scene with the flowers was changed in that Alice is shorter in height in the film, creating a different dynamic and events.

Character Fun Facts:

Disney originally wanted Luana Patten (Fun and Fancy Free, Song of the South, Melody Time) as Alice. At this time, it was being considered to do the film as live action. However, British actress Kathryn Beaumont would ultimately win out as Alice. She would also serve as the reference model.

The March Hare was so named because hares mate in the month of March, making them “mad.” This is alluded to when, in the film, he says, “Who’s Dinah?” and begins to pant

The Mad Hatter was named because in the 18th and 19th centuries felt was made using mercury. After prolonged exposure to the mercury, hatters would develop dementia.

The tag in his hat reads 10/6. This is a price, not a fraction. It was never originally stated by Lewis Carroll that the tag was in the hat, but it has stayed since Sir John Tenniel’s illustrations.

The mother oyster looked at her calendar, under the sea, and warned the oysters not to follow the Walrus. The month was March, with the R glowing red. Traditionally, oysters should only be eaten in months with an “R” in them, because in the other months it was too hot.

The Cheshire cat was named because of the abundance of dairies in Cheshire, England. Charles Dodgson was born in Cheshire.

Although the Jabberwocky does not appear in the film, the Cheshire Cat sings a verse from the poem:

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Other Fun Facts:

Alice in Wonderland contains the most songs out of every Disney film to date.

Sterling Holloway appears as the voice of the Cheshire Cat (Also known for voicing Winnie the Pooh, Kaa, and the stork from Dumbo)

Verna Felton appears as the voice of the Queen of Hearts (Also known for the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella and various elephants)

Last, but not least, is the topic of drugs. Without doing any research, it is an understandable assumption that Lewis Carroll was on drugs. Everyone is insane. The caterpillar, in both the book and the films, is smoking a hookah. However, doing research, it seems to be that the author was not a drug user, but making references to things in his life. The hookah smoking caterpillar was inspired by artists that were photographed by Dodgson, for example. This argument can go either way, so I am leaving it alone. I am not well versed enough in Dodgson or drugs to make a point towards either side.